Automating Your Savings Just Got Easier With Digit

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A few months ago, I posted on the simplest way ever to become rich. While I think you should really read that post, I’ll give you a CliffsNotes version. (Do they even make CliffsNotes any more? Do kids still use them?) Anyways, the way you become rich is to automate your savings. Since most people save what is left over at the end of the month, they end up savings a whopping NOTHING each month. It doesn’t take an advanced math degree to know that your nest egg will never grow if you never put anything into it.

The Typical Automation Route

Up until just recently, there were a couple of ways to automate saving money:

Invest in your 401k plan at work. Since the contributions come out before you get your paycheck, you are guaranteed to save.

Set up a recurring transfer from your checking account to your saving account.

Set up a recurring transfer from your bank account to a mutual fund account.

That’s it. While most can handle the 401k plan option, few set up a recurring transfer from their checking account to their savings account. Why? I have no idea. Maybe they get paid at different times each month, so it is hard to decide when to make the transfer? Maybe they couldn’t figure out an amount to transfer? Maybe they were so busy they just forgot? Regardless what the excuse issue was, there is a new solution that is going to fix everything.

Welcome To The Digit(al) Age

There is a new service out there called Digit. What exactly is Digit? It’s a service that automatically transfers money from your checking account to a savings account. Here is how it works:

You sign up to become a member (as of right now there is a waiting list, but my link will get you VIP instant access. No, bottle service is not included.) and link your checking account, the end.

Yeah, seriously that is all you have to do. Digit then crunches numbers in various algorithms to figure out your income and expenses on a monthly basis. Based on these findings, Digit will make an automatic transfer out of your checking account into a savings account. When they made my first transfer, it was for $4.95.

Transfers happen every few days and vary in amount, usually between $5 and $50 dollars and you get a text every time a transfer is made. In fact, text messaging is how the whole system works. When you sign up, you get a phone number from Digit that you can send texts to. Just text a prompt and you will receive a message back from Digit related to your inquiry.

Here are a few examples. Just text:

Savings: you see the amount you’ve saved so far

Checking: to see your checking balance

Withdraw: to transfer your money back to your checking account

Balance: to see the balance of your checking account

Pause: to stop the transfer of money at any time

Unpause/Resume: to restart the transferring of money

Bills: to see any bills that are coming due that you have to pay (not to Digit, but your everyday bills)

Settings: to change settings

Recent: for recent transactions

More: to see more recent transactions

Save: to manually transfer money

Save More/Save Less: use this to save more or less in a given day (can be used up to 3 times per day)

Minimum: allows you to set a minimum account balance. For example, if you tell Digit your minimum is $500 in your checking account, Digit will stop transferring money when your balance is below $500.

Questions and Answers

Now, I am sure you have a million questions regarding Digit. I’ll take the time to answer the most common questions I get when telling people about Digit and if I don’t answer yours, just ask me and I’ll find out.

Is Digit safe? Yes. Your personal information is secured on encrypted computers and is made anonymous. In other words, it would take a ton of work to match up names and accounts, assuming one even got that far. (Note that they do not store your login/password for your checking account.)

How much does it cost? Not a thing. Digit is 100% free.

Do I need a savings account? Nope. When you sign up, you are given a savings account by Digit.

Am I protected? Yes. Your savings with Digit are covered by FDIC Insurance, which is currently $250,000.

Are there restrictions? Kind of. As of now, you need to be in the US to take advantage of Digit. Also, only around 2,500 banks participate. The good news is that most major banks are covered. The bad news is that some small community banks are not. The good news though is that new banks are being added all of the time.

How do I get my savings bank? You can get your money back 24/7/365, though it will take one business day for the funds to show up back in your checking account. To get your money, you just text “withdraw” to Digit. Also, you can make as many withdraws per month as you like.

What about overdraft protection? Digit guarantees that they will not overdraft your checking account with their saving withdraws. That is how confident they are in their algorithms. In fact, if they do overdraft your account, they will cover any fees that you are charged!

If it’s free, how does Digit make money? They make money based on the interest that everyone’s savings earns.

Does my money in my Digit savings account earn interest? The money that is transferred to your Digit savings account does not earn you any interest. But you can earn bonuses. You bonus is based on your average Digit balance over the past 3 months. For every $100 that was transferred, you will receive $0.05. This bonus is earned every 3 months.

My Experience With Digit

I’ve been using Digit for almost a year now and there really is nothing that I can complain about with the day-to-day operations of the service. The only major issue I have is that I earn no interest on my savings. But, seeing as how interest rates are basically zero now anyways, it’s not like I am missing out on a huge sum of money. After all, my average savings transfer is $5. But the savings bonus is better than absolutely nothing. However, once my balance gets high enough, I might then transfer the cash back and put it into my Capital One 360 savings account where I will earn a little more in terms of interest. (Update: As of 12/31/15 my total Digit savings is $826.15. I will update this number periodically.)

So do I recommend using Digit?

Yes! Yes! Yes! (that is an inside joke to fellow wrestling fans.) But in all seriousness, I highly encourage you to give Digit a try. It literally took me less than 3 minutes to create an account and link my checking account and I was done. The next day, I got a text telling me I just saved $4.95. I think I was pooping when I got the text. When was the last time you saved money while on the toilet? Sorry if that is too much information, but that is how awesome it is. It saves you money regardless of what you are doing.

You don’t have to think about how much you can save this month. The Digit algorithm does this for you.

So what are you waiting for? Here is the link again to get instant VIP access – again, no bottle service – and start saving money today!

[Editors Note: If you do sign up for Digit using my link, I do get a small kickback from them. As usual, I only promote products and services that I believe in. There is no pressure to sign up, as I realize it isn’t for everyone. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!Also, Digit is currently only available in the US.]

Digit Review Summary

Overall Rating For Digit

Summary

If it were possible to give Digit a 10 out of 5 star rating, I would do it. As I said in the post, I have a solid budget but Digit found holes and has saved me a ton of money. It's simple, it's easy, it requires zero work/effort from me once I take the 2 minutes to join.

Awesome! Convenient too. Another great option for people to start saving. Every little bit we can save builds up to a whole lot later on.
Shame about the bottle service though. 😀Joseph Hogue recently posted..Prosper 2014 was a Record Breaker

So very true Joe. Every little bit helps. I love it because I DO have an automatic transfer that has me saving every month, but this helps with adding just a little bit more than I thought I could save every month.Jon recently posted..Investing With A Small Amount of Money

That sounds like a pretty cool service. My wife and I have an automatic transfer through our credit union (we move it to Capital One 360 like you do) but we always forget that the transfer even happens until the balance gets high. Definitely a great idea to do it beforehand because we’ll either forget to transfer it or find something else to spend on otherwise.Jeff recently posted..My Review of Republic Wireless Phones, Plans and Coverage

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